Quad Core, Thunderbolt In New MacBook Pros 495
Although as I write this the store is still down, the Apple web site has officially published the specs for the revised MacBook Pros, which top out at 2.2GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 for the 17" as well as offering a 512GB solid state drive. Somehow I don't think my boss will let me expense the one I want.
Thunderbolt (Score:5, Informative)
Is Intel's official name for the technology formerly codenamed Light Peak
http://www.intel.com/technology/io/thunderbolt/index.htm
No, it's not an Apple made-up name.
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Interesting, it seems it is basically mini Display Port with PCI Express at 10Gb/s on top. I welcome that. Over copper for now, but I guess the 100Gb/s version expected in 2020 may utilise fibre.
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Just to add to my comment. 10Gb/s over fibre I would think requires single-mode glass fibre. Not the most durable of cable choices for day-to-day use.
I get through multi-mode plastic fibre ADAT cables pretty quickly because the fibre breaks somewhere in the cable. Glass, you only have to stand on, twist or bend at silly angles and it may break, and they don't come cheap.
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10 GbE runs over multimode fiber just fine.
8Gb FC runs over multimode fiber just fine. I don't see why the much shorter distances here would require single mode.
Re:Thunderbolt (Score:4, Interesting)
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Trademarks are market dependent. There isn't a whole lot of crossover between telephonic handsets and super-ultra-mega-high-speed peripheral connectivity.
For example:
HD Video editor guy: "Yeah I'm plugging this 600TB Xsan into my new MacBook Pro via the Fiber Channel to Thunderbolt adapter" /facepalm
HD Video editor manager guy: "Wow, your phone will do that too? What is that, bluetooth then?"
HD Video editor guy:
That conversation isn't likely to happen, ever.
Re:Thunderbolt (Score:4, Funny)
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The same word can be given as a trademark for multiple things, as long as a reasonable consumer would not confuse one for the other. A reasonable consumer would not mistake a cell phone for a connectivity technology.
Re:Thunderbolt (Score:4, Insightful)
LightPeak is a much cooler name... and less ambiguous as a search term... and less childish sounding.
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Resolution (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Resolution (Score:5, Informative)
Supported resolutions: 1280 by 800 (native), 1152 by 720, 1024 by 640, and 800 by 500 pixels at 16:10 aspect ratio; 1024 by 768, 800 by 600, and 640 by 480 pixels at 4:3 aspect ratio; 1024 by 768, 800 by 600, and 640 by 480 pixels at 4:3 aspect ratio stretched; 720 by 480 pixels at 3:2 aspect ratio; 720 by 480 pixels at 3:2 aspect ratio stretched
15-Inch
Supported resolutions: 1440 by 900 (native), 1280 by 800, 1152 by 720, 1024 by 640, and 800 by 500 pixels at 16:10 aspect ratio; 1024 by 768, 800 by 600, and 640 by 480 pixels at 4:3 aspect ratio; 1024 by 768, 800 by 600, and 640 by 480 pixels at 4:3 aspect ratio stretched; 720 by 480 pixels at 3:2 aspect ratio; 720 by 480 pixels at 3:2 aspect ratio stretched
17-inch
Supported resolutions: 1920 by 1200 (native), 1680 by 1050, 1280 by 800, 1152 by 720, 1024 by 640, and 800 by 500 pixels at 16:10 aspect ratio; 1280 by 1024 pixels at 5:4 aspect ratio; 1280 by 1024 pixels at 5:4 aspect ratio stretched; 1600 by 1200, 1024 by 768, 800 by 600, and 640 by 480 pixels at 4:3 aspect ratio; 1600 by 1200, 1024 by 768, 800 by 600, and 640 by 480 pixels at 4:3 aspect ratio stretched; 720 by 480 pixels at 3:2 aspect ratio; 720 by 480 pixels at 3:2 aspect ratio stretched
http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/specs.html [apple.com]
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Re:Resolution (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Resolution (Score:5, Informative)
Notably, the 15" one can be upgraded to 1680x1050 at build time.
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Nowhere does it say anything about screen resolution. Why is it that people seem to think that the physical size (in inches) of the screen is the only thing that matters?
I always ask the same question about women.
Baby, I know it don't look big, but it can do 2560x1440 at 32bpp and 120 fps!
From the Apple website (Score:2)
http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/specs.html [apple.com]
Took about 15 seconds to find.
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Any higher and we'll need a resolution independent UI. Snow Leopard is not ready for this.
1680x1050 on a 15 inch makes text and other UI widgets small enough, any smaller and I'll need a magnifying glass.
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In the meantime there's always the OSX "Zoom" feature..
In my Ubuntu netbook I use a similar feature to get fullscreen flash video without slowing everything to a slideshow. Just hold Super and move the scroll wheel.. think I discovered it by accident.
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What does "hold super" mean in this context? ;D
Would love to test this zoom thing on my mac
Thanx
angel'o'sphere
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In Linux we often refer the Windows keys as the Super key. If there is an Apple key on a Mac, try that.
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The super thing was for use in Ubuntu.
For Mac, look at this link [apple.com] and scroll down to "Screen Magnification" :)
How many slashdot icons does Apple get? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:How many slashdot icons does Apple get? (Score:5, Insightful)
They have the Apple logo, iOS logo, iPhone, and Macbook. Why does apple get so many special Slashdot icons?
Meanwhile, Microsoft gets a dated sci-fi reference attached to a dated image of a guy who doesn't work there anymore.
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You've just made me realise: what sci-fi isn't "dated" by now?
Of course I generally watch stuff on DVD rather than TV these days, but I don't remember even hearing of any recent good sci-fi shows that aren't a remake or a continuation of some show from the 20th century.. in fact, even if you take out the "good", what fresh stuff has there been?
Though it has to be said that dated doesn't mean bad. Lightsabers are incredibly dated, but I still want one :) and the BSG remake was pretty damn good.
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Other than that not much new Sci-Fi comes to mind.
Re:How many slashdot icons does Apple get? (Score:4, Insightful)
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They should get a balmer borg pic
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He's still chairman.
Re:How many slashdot icons does Apple get? (Score:5, Insightful)
And yet, somehow, these make sense. Apple is known widely for its recent products, while Microsoft is mostly known for its older ones and for Gates. The Ballmer years have not been kind to them.
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Because sexy Apple products make computer geeks sexier by extension. Steve Jobs is personally invested in the grand mission of helping neck-beards get laid.
In return, we give Apple insane coverage. Simple really.
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Most of the Apple "news" tends to be advertisements. Like this story.
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Well, Apple sell things. That's what they do. Not a lot of chance that Apple news won't somehow feature new products or rumours of new products.
Re:How many slashdot icons does Apple get? (Score:5, Insightful)
Most of the Apple "news" tends to be advertisements. Like this story.
And yet pretty much every tech site feel a need to post what is essentially free slashvertisements for Apple, otherwise people think they're out of touch with current trends. Of course slashdot being full of IT people and engineers hate all that branding, advertising, marketing and so on but you can't deny that the free publicity is a huge, huge business asset. Dell or HP or Acer releasing a new laptop model gets a meh on a few computer sites, that's all..
Number of Apple stories in last three days (Score:3)
Dozens.
Overkill much?
Re:Number of Apple stories in last three days (Score:5, Insightful)
Dozens.
Overkill much?
Quad Core, Thunderbolt In New MacBook Pros 247 Comments
Apple in Talks to Improve Sound Quality of Music Downloads: 429 Comments
MacBook Pro Specs Leaked, iPad Event March 2: 352 Comments
Apple To Unveil Light Peak, New MacBook Pros This Week?305 Comments
Last.Fm Founder Criticizes Apple Over Music Subscription Fees: 218 Comments
Steve Jobs Health Worries Escalate: 520 Comments
Apple To Keep 30% of Magazine Subscription Revenue: 381 Comments
Why Dumbphones Still Dominate, For Now: 618 Comments
Will the Apple TV Become a Gaming Platform? 194 Comments
Vatican Bans IOS Confession App: 323 Comments
iPhone Attack Reveals Passwords In Six Minutes: 186 Comments
Pirated App Sold On Mac App Store: 334 Comments
Yeah, overkill. Slashdot's really ramming this down our throats. It's not like we're screaming at Slashdot to keep publishing Apple stories or anything.
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1. news fact
2. rumor
3. rumor
4. rumor (then trumped by #1)
5. flamebait (op-ed)
6. rumor (no one knows his state)
7. news fact
8. flamebait (op-ed)
9. rumor
10. fact, Apple pop culture
11. news fact
12. news fact
13. this post (op-ed flamebait?)
(notice, more than 50% of the articles are rumors or flamebait, not news...)
Re:Number of Apple stories in last three days (Score:4, Insightful)
>>>un-checking the "Apple" category
I don't mind reading Apple stories.
I mind reading the SAME "rumors about macbook" story three times in three days.
can't expense that much? (Score:3)
well, buy a pc. get more for less. and there's some good chassis too available(and they come with built in 3g, bluray, esata, usb3 etc etc). they'll even work nicely with your old firewire devices ;).
of course though, maybe you really must have the new interconnect to connect.. erm, well, nothing. well, some devices will come with due time and you're going to be paying your mac tax on the thunderbolt cables.
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I assume you just make fun, but I don't get why people repeat this. I don't even want to start arguing about prices and quality ....
If i buy a PC ... you know ... then ... think about it: obviously then I have a PC, right? And not a Mac. So how can buying a PC be more when in fact it is of zero value for me?
You
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I see you've ignored cows for so long that you don't know many of the shortcomings have been fixed with the birth of the latest cow.
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The 15 inch quad core price is very disappointing (Score:3)
at 2199. The fact the base resolution isn't much better than Windows budget computers irks me too. If anything their prices are worse than before. The whole push seems to be to get LightPeak out ahead of the iPad2 which many have speculated that the unknown connector on it was LightPeak
The 13 inch laptop is disappointing when compared to even the MBA line. I am can almost justify the 13 price structure but I still trying to get my hands around where they are with the 15 laptops.
I love my Apple iMac but I certainly don't see value in their laptops, I can get by just fine with a $600 dollar range Windows Laptop and have done a trip or two with a netbook just fine. The price difference alone changes how you deal with them on trips, when I traveled with my previous 2.4 MBP I was loathe to leave out of my sight, checking it in at the desk when I had to be out of the room for hours. With the others I just stuffed them under a pillow.
The only thing Pro about these is the price. The name is a pretentious as those with them who camp at Starbucks
Re:The 15 inch quad core price is very disappointi (Score:5, Interesting)
I thought the same before using a MacBook Pro every day for work for a year.
You just don't get the stability, performance, battery life and build quality in a cheap Windows notebook (I've bought tons of them after much research when I worked in IT). Runs for months on end, 80 hour weeks, never shutdown, rarely restarted, basically never gets in my way.
Macintosh quality (Score:3, Interesting)
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Re:Macintosh quality (Score:4, Interesting)
1) Apple is overpriced, I can get by with a $600 PC
2) Yeah, but Dell's are crap!
3) Dell isn't the only PC manufacturer. Not a fair comparison.
4) Who? Alienware? Now they aren't cheaper than Apple!
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Actually I must say qualitywise the business lines of windows notebooks are not too bad, I have been working with Lenovos for the last year and I they are qualitywise pretty much in the same game. But if you go for the business notebooks you often also end up with Intel only but the build quality is there but also the price in the same regions.
As for non lockups on Apple computers, as soon as you install some VM software which goes deeply into the kernel then the stability becomes flakey as well. My 13 inch
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Same thought I have not seen the prices yet, but I assume Apple used the product change for yet another pricehike like it has happend so often in the past. The bigest issues indeed is the lack of a good graphics processor in the 13 inch macbook pro. Guess it is now slowly time to say goodbye to Apple. My current macbook pro 13 inch will hopefully last for another bunch of years but then if Apple does not change their product offering in the low range again to something worthwhile graphicswise I will say goo
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You assume wrong. The prices are the essentially the same.
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Hey. If you really want to switch, want to sell your Macbook Pro to me for $400 + shipping? For that price, you can probably get a new Windows laptop that does everything the Mac Book Pro does.
You get a new laptop and get rid of the apple one you don't want. Sounds like a good deal.
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I agree with you. I'd really like to get a Macbook Pro, but I'm just having a hard time justifying the price when I could spend less and get more on a PC laptop. But I'd really like to get a Mac (finally) but they keep pricing themselves out of my price-range for some of the basic specs I'd expect.
On the graphics side (Score:2)
The 13 inch model is a letdown, it only has an intel graphics processor, only time will tell if this is not a significant performance downgrade to the nividia solution before. At least the 15 inch and 17 inch models still have discrete graphics processors.
Re:On the graphics side (Score:4, Interesting)
You can get an idea right now, since the HD3000 has been out for a while. Basically, in raw GPU performance, it's pretty lousy. There are places where the memory bus improvements can make up some of the difference, but frankly, I consider this a step back. It's a shame, too--I'd been planning on picking up the 13" MBP after this refresh. Now I'm going to start looking at other notebooks.
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Ok thanks for the clarification, I just expected such a miserable result from an Intel offering. Oh well, I hope my 13 inch intel based notebook will last a while longer. I am not to eager to switch to the 15 inch notebook because the form factor fits perfectly. Once it dies I will have to get a non apple machine I guess, or an old 13 inch model second hand.
Is there any address where you can write apple about your personal concerns about this epic fail.
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They have a complaint page somewhere on their website, and sometimes people have luck mailing Jobs (though since he's on sick leave, that's probably not the thing to do.)
Frankly, the 13" MBP has been the redheaded stepchild for the last generation or two. It's barely worth buying over the Macbook, if at all.
Buyer's remorse or Buyer's rejoice? (Score:2)
Additional features:
Quad-core Processor, 7200 RPM Hard Drive, Solid State Drive, Blu-ray, LED Backlit Keyboard, HDMI port, harman/kardon® speakers, Face Recognition, Numeric 10-key Pad, Webcam and Mic, Bluetooth®
Why wasn't there an
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Oh Toshiba. Every time I think about buying a new laptop (and getting a Macbook) I end up buying a new Toshiba. You also forgot to mention how sturdy your Toshiba is (I've had quite a few of them take some falls with no ill effects).
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Bah! The wireless is only in the 2.4 GHz spectrum. They left out the 802.11a/n 5 GHz bits.
Can you tell me if the wifi is provided by a mini-PCI or mini-PCIe card? If so, I could replace it with something proper that does both 2.4 & 5 GHz.
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Which does not mean that Apple is not
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Re:Buyer's remorse or Buyer's rejoice? (Score:4, Informative)
Intel® Core i7-740QM processor (quad core 3.6 GHz)
Not sure where you got that from. The i7-740QM [intel.com] is a quad-core 1.73GHz part. In the highest Turbo Boost mode, it is a single-core 2.93GHz part. It doesn't have a 3.6GHz mode. It's also the last generation (Clarksfield, 45nm) part, while the MBPs use the newer (Sandybridge, 32nm) ones. The slowest that the 17" MBPs come with is the Core i7-2720QM, which is 2.2GHz in quad-core mode, up to 3.3GHz in single-core mode.
Given the other features of that machine, the CPU looks pretty anaemic.
now the cheaper macbook pro is better then mac pro (Score:2)
now the cheaper macbook pro is better then mac pro BUT IT COSTS LESS.
Ok the mac pro may have a better video card and faster cpu but $2500 for a desktop with out screen with only a quad core cpu and 3gig ram vs a laptop with quad core screen and 4 gb ram?.
$1200 for a 13" laptop with INTEL VIDEO?? when other systems have faster cpus and better video cards + bigger HDD's for $400-$600 less?
look like the mini is still at Core 2 Duo and the mac pro is still at the same cpu spped and price.
How will Thunderbolt wo
Re:now the cheaper macbook pro is better then mac (Score:4, Informative)
As someone who has benchmarked the living crap out of all of Apple's 2010 hardware, I can tell you with certainty that the Mac Pro will still leave these in the dust on any real work. The 2010 Mac Pro is 3 to 4 times faster than the 2010 MacBook Pro i7 in any reasonable benchmark you want to talk about. Maybe it's only 2 to 3 times faster now.
Until Intel releases Xeons based on this same stuff, then it will probably be 4 to 5 times faster.
Oh Apple... (Score:2)
By amalgamating the mini-displayport and the light peak data lines, they certainly have kept another small hole in the chassis from sullying the 2001-esque purity to which they aspire. However, that means that you can't use an external monitor and a light peak device at the same time, unless you either deal with an ugly(almost certainly powered) breakout box, or
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I wouldn't be surprised if 'native' DisplayPort screens start including a pass-through as well, it's just the adapters that are 'terminal'.
But they haven't lost any ports... (Score:3)
I hope Apple hasn't let their fascination with reducing port count get in the way of what might otherwise have been an interesting technology...
Well, first the mini-DisplayPort compatible connector has been adopted by Intel [intel.com] as well - so this is the official Thunderbolt connector, not some Apple proprietary thing.
Secondly, according to the Apple website, you can still plug a monitor directly into the thunderbolt port, using your existing Mini-DP cables and adaptors. So nothing has been lost.
Interestingly, if you look on the tech brief at the intel site, it says:
Thunderbolt cables may be electrical or optical; both use the same Thunderbolt connector. An active electrical-only cable provides for connections of up to 3 meters in length, and provides for up to 10W of power deliverable to a bus-powered device. And an active optical cable provides for much greater lengths; tens of meters.
So - is there actually an optical link hiding inside the socket on the new Macs? (Not
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As I said, plain-old displayport has had support for display daisy-chaining and an AUX channel that(while it is only really enough to support a couple of USB ports at full steam) could easily be used to handle a variety of integrated monitor peripherals, card-readers, comparatively undemanding USB tasks, audio, 10/100 ethernet, etc. That capability ha
Thunderbolt based on pci-e? how many lanes does it (Score:2)
Thunderbolt based on pci-e? how many lanes does it have?
can you boot from a add in card on the Thunderbolt pci-e bus?
can you link a video card in a pci-e box linked by Thunderbolt have it work good for games / cad and other stuff a add in video card can do?
No price tag? (Score:2)
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Starting at:
13 inch $1199
15 inch $1799
17 inch $2499
The same as the old models and within a few buck of comparable models....if there were any.
The missing details (Score:2)
About the thunderbolt logo (Score:2)
From this photo here [apple.com] you can see that the logo for thunderbolt is a commonly-used symbol for electricity. It certainly looks as if that's where the power supply is supposed to plug in. I think it's a poor choice of name and symbol, compared to Light Peak.
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From this photo here you can see that the logo for thunderbolt is a commonly-used symbol for electricity.
In fairness, you mean the commonly used symbol for high voltage electricity. So, it's OK if you plug the 3kV feed directly in. I wonder it if takes 3-pahse. One way to find out, I suppose...
Re:Reduced battary life (Score:5, Informative)
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Also factor in the new sandy bridge quad-core CPU's that have a greater TDP than the older dual-core i3/i5/i7.
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Are they changing chipsets, too? Mobile pentium processors had lower TDP than mobile Athlon processors at one point... but when you consider that the AMD solution eliminated half the chipset you ended up with lower TDP on the desktop with AMD than with mobile intel processors... for a while.
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Only with all 4 cores blazing.
Intel has been working on better "scaling", so that for normal use (3 cores idle, and one at 100% trying to run a buggy Flash app, or a Javascript monster) it doesn't waste too much power.
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Re:Reduced battary life (Score:5, Funny)
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Not as much as you think. Since we're dealing with bits then it actually weighs 64 grams.
There, fixed that for me
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Take it back for a refund.
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The 17" screen is 1200 pixels, the 15" is 900, what are you talking about? The 17" supports a 1050 pixel mode, but I'm guessing that that's something to do with the video card as that's quite a common PC screen resolution. I don't know why the video card standards don't match the TV resolutions but it's not Apple's doing.
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the only place Apple beats it is the AMD Radeon HD 6490M graphics card - I only have an HD 5830M.
i'm not quite up to date with AMDs model numbers (havent heard of the 6490), but 6490 suggests that it is the fastest card (90) in the low end range (400) of the 6 series, while your card is the slowest card in the high end range of the 5 series, past experience has taught me that your card should be MUCH faster
looking up the specs reveals that the 6490 has only half the memory bandwidth, and 1 5th the amount of shaders, even though its clock speed is up to 50% faster, the 5830 will be MUCH faster
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By that logic, your HP Envy 15 also has subpar hardware. And it looks suspiciously not unlike an Apple laptop.
There is really no minimum requirement for negative comments about Apple on any topic, so why post any random drivel? Besides, the specs are very nice, sufficiently cutting-edge, and it isn't really as if there's been a quantum leap in computer technology over the past 12 months.
Also, in order to address your misguided concern about their screen size: the 17-inch models' screen is 1920x1200. Nice, n
Re:iPad (Score:5, Insightful)
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at which point the bottleneck will simply be your harddisk / the devices internal flash memory.
Modern SSDs are optimized for high data rates, flash memory in ipods/usb sticks, not so much. Even if you fix that, that slow HDD in your laptop will be the limiting factor.
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2.8Ghz quad core i7 in a Toshiba? Impossible...
The fastest sandy bridge quad core i7 is the Core i7-2920XM which is 2.5Ghz. It's MSRP alone is $1096 because is the top-end extreme edition so even if Toshiba used that, there is no way the laptop would be anywhere close to $1200 let alone even under $2000.
Apple is using the Core i7-2720QM 2.2Ghz which has an MSRP of $378 already.
There is one processor in between these and that's the Core i7-2820QM which is 2.3Ghz and runs $568.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L [wikipedia.org]
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my bad its a 2.8ghz dual core i7 I was looking at
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Yes and no, they had an nvidia 9400m connected to the northbridge.
Now they went all the way with intel, guess we will see if this is not a performance degradation. My eery feeling is that the performance will be about the same or slightly worse with probably more problems in games.
I am not too happy about this switch back to Intel (again) either. Given Intels absloutely miserable track record on integrated graphics adapters.
For me lightpeak is the biggest hope, this might allow finally external gpu boxes gi
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